WASHINGTON – House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Saks, is focused on boosting defense spending as Congress decides on a budget plan for the next decade.
The GOP House budget resolution includes an increase of $100 billion in defense spending. However, Rogers said he “absolutely” would like to see more money allocated to it.
The Senate budget resolution calls for a $150 billion increase for defense, which is a number Rogers wanted to see in the House version. The military spending portion of the Senate budget plan would focus on growing the U.S. Navy, building up air and missile defense and strengthening nuclear defense.
“We’re so far away from what we should be spending on defense that we need very big numbers,” Rogers told Alabama Daily News before the House left for recess.
The Senate’s budget resolution cleared its first procedural step Tuesday night. The vote was 50-47 with Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., voting for it. The Senate is expected to start a ‘vote-a-rama’ on Thursday, where senators can offer up unlimited amendments before voting on final adoption.
President Donald Trump endorsed the House budget resolution Wednesday in a Truth Social post, but the Senate is still forging ahead on its version this week.
The House can’t vote on its resolution until it’s back in session Tuesday. The House and Senate will have to adopt the same budget resolution to start the reconciliation process, which allows the legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority. The Senate resolution does not include tax cuts, those would be in a separate bill. The House plan does include tax cuts.
In an Armed Services Committee hearing last week on the global threat environment, Rogers said threats from Russia, China, and Iran make increasing military investments critical.
“We must get back above 4% of (Gross Domestic Product),” Rogers said. “That starts with a reconciliation process that includes robust defense funding. Our allies and partners must follow suit and spend more on their own defense too.”
In 2024, military spending was 2.7% of GDP, according to the DOD.
Rogers said Congress won’t be able to fix the problem just through reconciliation, but will also have to boost yearly defense spending.
“Those are going to be some nice bumps, but we’re going to have to see significant increases in our annual appropriations bills if we want to ever get back to that 4 to 5 percent of GDP,” Rogers told ADN.
While Rogers pushes for more money, he and House Armed Services Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., are also asking all of the military services to identify “obsolete” programs that could be cut.
“We are committed to eliminating waste, reforming our acquisition processes, and ensuring each dollar within the defense budget is spent wisely,” Rogers and Smith said in a statement. “We have a unique opportunity at this time to make quantifiable progress toward these goals.”
Even though defense and border security are set to get funding boosts in the reconciliation process, most other areas such as agriculture and health care spending could see billions of dollars in cuts.
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